Arsenal came away with a battling 0-0 draw at Leigh Sports Village against a United side that qualified for the Champions League’s League Phase in midweek.
Going into the game, Renee Slegers made two changes from the side that defeated West Ham on Matchday 2. Beth Mead and Frida Maanum made way for Stina Blackstenius and Olivia Smith.
Jenna Nighswonger was the only outfield player missing out on the making the 20-player squad, alongside goalkeeper Anneke Borbe.
It is quite clear at this early stage of the season that the coach has a core set of eight players who have started all three games so far: van Domselaar; Fox, Reid, Catley, McCabe; Little, Caldentey and Russo up top.
With the team playing only a game a week until the Champions League starts and performance good enough, we know that Slegers likes to keep a stable nucleus of a team.
Alongside those eight players, she has repeatedly used Foord, Smith, Blackstenius, Kelly, Maanum, Mead and Hinds from the bench. Wubben-Moy got two minutes due to a Catley injury. So it is very much 17 players being used so far, before rotation starts in October.
Sunday’s match was a tough battle against a United side that has improved a lot in the last two seasons. They are much better on the ball and are defensively sound. Katie Reid had a tremendous performance justifying the coaching choice to give her the nod this season. She has been growing at an incredible rate over the last two seasons following her loan to Watford.
As a result of the draw, Chelsea are now top of the League with nine points out of nine after defeating Leicester 1-0. Manchester United drop to second place, while Arsenal drop to third. Manchester City come into the top four after beating Spurs 5-1 away.
At the bottom of the table, West Ham and Liverpool have no points, Aston Villa have one. The Aston Villa v Liverpool match was postponed due to the untimely death of the former Burnley, Liverpool, West Ham, Boston Breakers, Bristol and Millwall manager Matt Beard.
He was a really nice guy, always happy to have a chat, discuss things and the whole industry were united in their tribute to him. I had many conversations with him, even did a scouting job for him and he gave me a signed shirt by his whole team for it. You would have plenty of banter in press conferences with him too.
As I have been around women’s football for more than 20 years now, Matt was one of the few people I have known for a long time, an old school one like Rick Passmoor – who I saw yesterday as he is the interim manager for Leicester City Women. Keith Boanas is also another pioneer on the coaching staff still doing the job.
It is so sad and heartbreaking to hear someone who was so liked by everyone around is gone.
Arsenal will be at home to Aston Villa next Saturday at the Emirates Stadium with a 12pm kick-off. Renee Slegers and her team will look to get back to winning ways and capitalise on any sleep-up from the other big four teams.